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John Paul George & Django
Artist: The Hot Club of San Francisco
“ . . . here’s a collection of Beatles songs played in Gypsy jazz style by the always-exciting Hot Club of San Francisco. The overall concept is fun enough, but there’s a subtler joke in there as well: the name for which the Django Reinhardt reference acts as a substitute is, of course, that of Beatles drummer Ringo Starr–and this being a Gypsy jazz combo, they of course have no drummer, but instead rely on driving on-the-beat rhythmic chops from multiple acoustic guitars. How do these tunes stand up to the Django treatment? Quite nicely, generally speaking, and certainly better than less sophisticated pop songs might have.” --Rick Anderson, CD HotList
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Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau
“Given that they seemingly come from polar ends of the musical spectrum, the collaboration may feel like an odd choice at first. However, after hearing this debut, one might be hard-pressed to imagine a more compatible duo to emerge from their generation than these two distinctive mavericks.” --Matt Collar, allmusic.com
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Delia Derbyshire Appreciation Society
“The name says it all — as long, that is, as you know that Delia Derbyshire was the composer of the Dr. Who theme. Once you know that, you’ll know what to expect: electronic music of a distinctly 1970s/1980’s cast, sounding a bit more analog than it actually is, riding on clouds of arpeggiation and blippy-bloopy tonalities that hint at rhythm more than they express it.” --Rick Anderson, CD HotList
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Heavy Fire
Artist: Black Star Riders
“The follow-up to 2015's Killer Instinct, the aptly named Heavy Fire delivers another barrage of might, melody, and dual-lead riffage that invokes the heydays of classic rock without falling victim to nostalgia. The third time around for Thin Lizzy expats Ricky Warwick, Scott Gorham, Damon Johnson, and Jimmy DeGrasso, and the second ride for former Ratt and Lynch Mob member Robbie Crane, Heavy Fire sees the veteran decibel-makers firing on all cylinders.” --James Christopher Monger, allmusic.com
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Concentus Musico-Instrumentalis
Artist: Johann Joseph Fux, Neue Hofkapelle Graz
“The monumental seven-piece collection titled Concentus Musico-instrumentalis in septem partitas, ut vulgo dicimus, divisus represents Johann Joseph Fux’s earliest work, and was written and assembled in honor of Emperor Joseph I. It consists of four overtures, two sinfonias and an eight-voice serenade for winds and strings. There are elements of the music that may be sly references to Joseph’s adventurous personality, and its mixture of French and Italian styles also reflects the Emperor’s personal tastes and his own musicality (he was reportedly an accomplished keyboardist and flutist). I believe this is the first complete recording of these works, and it’s a delight.” --Rick Anderson, CD HotList
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Live in Paris
Artist: Sleater-Kinney
“With a cover like a xeroxed Nineties feminist 'zine and a recording like a hi-fi fever-dream of a cassette bootleg worn out in your pre-owned Cavalier, Live in Paris is a 48-minute purge reaffirming the power of that hoary rock cliché, the live LP. Recorded last March, landmarks like ‘Dig Me Out’ and ‘I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone’ are as breathtaking as 20 years ago. But the revelations are raw reloads from 2005's farewell The Woods and 2015's comeback No Cities to Love, which throb with new context. ‘1984 is such a bore!’ Carrie Brownstein sneers on ‘Entertain,’ before Corin Tucker demands, ‘Whose side are you on?’ Whose, indeed?” --Will Hermes, Rolling Stone
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Mikrokosma
Artist: Wayne Vitale & Brian Baumbusch with the Lightbulb Ensemble
“The music of Bali has fascinated contemporary Western composers since at least the middle of the 20th century. Composers like Lou Harrison and Peter Sculthorpe have written for gamelan ensembles, and the repetitive, interlocking rhythms that characterize gamelan music often feature in more progressive and experimental types of Western pop music (listen to the opening bars of King Crimson’s 1980 song ‘Discipline,’ for example.) Current composers are using the textures and structural principles that underlie this music as a stepping-off point from which to create music that is uniquely their own–and that’s the modus operandi for both Wayne Vitale and Brian Baumbusch, who have created this hypnotically gorgeous album from two works: the large-scale multipart title piece (written by both of them together) and Baumbusch’s own, much more intimate and compact Ellipses. Those who have never heard gamelan music before may find it puzzling, but these pieces are both fascinating and approachable.” --Rick Anderson, CD HotList
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Hot Thoughts
Artist: Spoon
“The title track of Hot Thoughts starts like a Kraftwerk tune: electronic drone, metronomic beats and clipped robotic vocals. Then the guitars crash in, and you're reminded almost no one engineers post-punk propulsion into precision-tuned rock-and-roll melody better than Spoon auteur Britt Daniel. Nearly 25 years in, his group has made maybe their best record yet – a line that been repeated, accurately enough, with most every record they've made.” --Will Hermes, Rolling Stone
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Big Machine
Artist: Eliza Carthy & the Wayward Band
“I’ve long held the opinion that the best folk-rock is British folk-rock. Unlike American folk-rock, it’s almost never wimpy and it almost never makes me roll my eyes. And it’s also long been my opinion that much of the best British folk-rock is made by Eliza Carthy. On her latest, she gathers together a band with which she first started working back in 2013 for an album of broadside ballads, contemporary and original songs, and other odds and ends. The band rocks in a rough-hewn, staggering, but completely undeniable way–maybe a bit the way Tom Waits would if he’d been born in England’s industrial north.” --Rick Anderson, CD HotList
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Live North America 2016
Artist: Gary Clark, Jr.
“The album succeeds because Gary Clark, Jr. knows that blues needs songs, feel, and groove in addition to solos. Indeed, the striking thing about the album is its vibe: he may be playing to large audiences, but the record feels warm and intimate, sliding into soul grooves as often as it gets gritty. In many ways, it feels richer than his studio albums, which rely on pushing his contemporary flair to the forefront. Live North America 2016 is all about the basics and that's why it works as well as it does.” --Stephen Thomas Erlewine, allmusic.com
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Build Music
Artist: Janka Nabay & the Bubu Gang
“Better buckle in before you cue this one up. In his native Sierra Leone, Janka Nabay is an established star of what’s called bubu music–a fast, relentlessly pulsing music that emerged centuries ago as something of an occult practice and eventually infiltrated popular culture. Traditionally played on drums and bamboo horns, bubu music is now thoroughly electronic, and Janka Nabay has been a leading practictioner of it in its modern form for decades. His singing voice is pleasant and charming, and the music is exhausting but fun.” --Rick Anderson, CD HotList
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DAMN
Artist: Kendrick Lamar
“Much like the recent A Tribe Called Quest record, Damn. is a brilliant combination of the timeless and the modern, the old school and the next-level. The most gifted rapper of a generation stomps into the Nineties and continues to blaze a trail forward. Don't be confused if he can't stay humble.” --Christopher R. Weingarten, Rolling Stone
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So It Is
Artist: Preservation Hall Jazz Band
“Along with being a joyous and infectiously jubilant album, So It Is offers the one-two punch of letting the Preservation Hall Jazz Band play the kind of raw, no-holds-barred jazz and blues that they helped personally create a renaissance for, while surreptitiously luring their listeners into what often explodes into a full-on Afro-Latin dance party.” --Matt Collar, allmusic.com
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Mercer County Library System 2751 Brunswick Pike Lawrenceville, NJ 08648 Phone: (609) 989-6922 E-mail: nrsupprt@mcl.org |
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